Chorus Is Mover's Only Team

Bass Vocalist Enjoys Being In Choral Group

One evening a week for about eight months each year, he sings bass in rehearsals of the Elmhurst Choral Union.

But during the day, his musical experience is very different. He makes his living as a keyboard translocator-that's the technical name for a piano mover. He works for an Elmhurst piano moving company.

Busch, 46, is one of the senior members of the singing group, having joined in the early 1980s. He is a lifelong resident of Villa Park, and his love of music-choral music in particular-goes back about as far as he can remember.

"My first choral experience came in junior high school, when I joined the Harvard Avenue Bible Church choir. It was kind of a peer group thing. But it began a long history in choral groups."

He joined the chorus at Willowbrook High School, and after high school attended the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, continuing his choral participation there in the men's glee club.

Busch fondly recalls a West Coast Easter tour he took with the Moody group: "There we were in San Francisco for an engagement. It was quite a scene on Easter Sunday morning, 40 guys in tuxedos riding the cable car on the way to our concert.

"Afterward, we went to a restaurant where we asked the manager if we could sing grace, still in our tuxedos. We really turned the patrons' heads."

In 1973, after four years in the Air Force, including duty in Vietnam, Busch attended the College of Du Page, Glen Ellyn, where he also sang with the choral group. He continued to sing there into the early 1980s. About that time he and some friends in the COD group heard that the Elmhurst Choral Union was doing Handel's "Messiah" for the coming Christmas season.

"That sounded like something we wanted to do," Busch says. "It was a non-audition group so we joined up. I've been there ever since."

The choral union was formed about 1950 as a joint venture of the Elmhurst Park District and Elmhurst College. Today the college alone supports the group.

"Its purpose is to bring together college students and community residents who wish to participate in the presentation of major choral works," says Gary Wilhelm, the director.

The chorus has 65 to 100 members, depending on time of year and the work selected for performance. The members range in age from teenagers to retirees. The ratio of females to males is about two to one, which is typical for a community choral group, Wilhelm says.

The chorus draws members mainly from the Elmhurst and Villa Park areas, but it also attracts people from outside the area, with occasional participants from Chicago. Current membership represents Wheaton, Aurora, Oak Park, Oak Lawn and Hinsdale in addition to Elmhurst and Villa Park.

The members come from a variety of backgrounds, "but," says Wilhelm, "the fun thing is, they enjoy working together-their interaction is good."

The chorus performs a repertoire of major classical choral works. In addition to the "Messiah," which is performed every other year, repertoire includes Vaughan Williams' "Hodie," Faure's "Requiem," Mendelssohn's "Hymn of Praise," Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana," and Brahms' "Song of Fate."

Rehearsals are 2 to 2 1/2 hours every Monday evening, and there are two performances a year, one in December and one in the spring. The choral union has orchestral accompaniment for performances, and this spring, for the first time, it was accompanied by the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra. That orchestra is now scheduled to perform with the choral union at one of its performances each year.

The concerts are usually held at Hammerschmidt Chapel on the campus of Elmhurst College. However, the chapel is being renovated, so the next performance, scheduled for Dec. 4, will be held at Hinsdale Central High School.

After joining the chorus, Busch quickly discovered that loyalty to the group can run very strong. "At one of my first rehearsals, I found myself singing next to an older man, but a really strong bass. I don't consider myself a really strong singer, and he carried me, which I appreciated. It turned out he was the former director of the group. He just couldn't give it up."

Participating in a group usually doesn't appeal to Busch. His participation in the chorus is something of a variation from his other activities.

"I'm not normally a team player," he says. "I'm usually a solo-like in sports, I like biking and long distance running. I've been in four marathons. I could bike in groups, but I prefer the freedom of going alone. Except in the union-there it's a team performance, and there is a sense of cohesion and brotherhood that comes through.

"Usually we only have one or two go-throughs with the orchestra before a performance, but during the performance the audience perceives the chorus and the orchestra as a single unit. It's teamwork."